[ 521 ]

[katara]

The Night House by Jo Nesbø

Series:
N/A

Genre:
Netgalley, Crime, Fiction, Horror, Suspense, Thriller

Publication Date:
May 30, 2023

Pages Numbers:
256

Read Date:
July 23rd, 2023

Date Finished:
July 25th, 2023

Rating:
4/5

Blurb:

From the internationally best-selling author, a twisted, multi-layered spin on the classic horror novel

In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .

You know who I am. She's going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There's not a thing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence--and preserve his sanity--as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.

Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .

Review:

This novel follows fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved, whose parents were killed in a fire and sent to his aunt and his uncle in Ballantyne. Quickly, he finds himself the outcast of the town, but when his classmates start disappearing, the town starts to turn on him. Richard believes the number he called has something to do with the missing students and he is determined to prove himself innocent of the murders. But Richard's narrative may or may not always be reliable.

With pages under 290 pages, this creepy novel is a perfect read for the Autumn season especially during the month of October. The beginning of the book will be a bit confusing plot but as the story goes further into the novel, things start to make sense and it starts pulling you in with its twists and turns until everything you believe changes in the final pages.

Final Thought:

If you like creepy novels that are twisty and turns, then add this to your TBR for the Halloween season.

Similar Books:

666 by Tom Egeland
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin

[ 522 ]

[katara]

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Series:
Letters of Enchantment #1

Genre:
Historical Fiction, Mythology, Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult, Historical, Enemies to Lovers, Gods Walking With Humans, Dual Points of View, Rivals to Lovers, Cliffhanger, Paranormal, Science Fiction, Book Series, Romantasy

Publication Date:
April 4, 2023

Pages Numbers:
368

Read Date:
July 25th, 2023

Date Finished:
July 25th, 2023

Rating:
5/5

Blurb:

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Shadow and Bone meets Lore in Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals, an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.

Review:

I have had this book on my TBR ever since it came out and I had always kept promising myself that I would eventually read it. Now, I am hitting myself for not reading this book sooner. The characters, the world-building, and the fact that the Gods walked among the mortal world was something quite different than I expected.

The relationship between Enva and Dacre feels a bit like a version of Hades and Persephone. After all, it was Dacre who had seen Enva among the mortal realm, plucking the strings of her instrument, and offering a song for the dead. This is how he finds her and he knows he must have her. Though he tries numerous times to coax her below, she declines time and time again until Dacre takes matters into his own hands and brings her down himself. This plot is slightly reminiscent of the storyline of Hades and Persephone. It may or may not have been the bases of their relationship. Either way, Enva uses the strings of her instrument to put down Dacre to sleep while she, once more escapes to the world above.

This angers Dacre and because of this, both he and Enva use the mortal realm for their war and draw in the humans to be part of it. For me, this seems a bit selfish on both of their parts. They might have their own flaws but at the same time, they are using humans for their war with really no care for the lives lost on both sides.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have Iris and Roman. Both are incredibly talented in their field and both are rivals of the same newspaper. Both worked hard to achieve gaining the promotion that the paper offered. Both come from different parts of society, while Roman is upper-class, Iris is different. Her mother is an alcoholic and her brother has gone off to join the war. This leaves Iris to be the one who takes care of not only their mother but be the one who is constantly bringing the money home.

While her mother has squandered her life on drink, Iris struggles to keep them afloat and the only thing in her life that offers any comfort is the typewriter that her grandmother left her. Every night, she uses it to write letters to her brother. Only to find them having disappeared the next day or in front of her. She never expects any reply until one day, a reply is sent back - the writer is not her brother but someone else.

I loved this book. I loved the complex characters, and the unique world-building with the mythology and urban fantasy blending together, captivating and drawing in the reader into this world.

Final Thought:

But I give you a fair warning - this book ends on a cliffhanger and the next book in the duet (?) will be out sometime toward the end of December.

Similar Books:

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

[ 523 ]

[katara]

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara

Series:
N/A

Genre:
Historical Fiction, Mythology, Greek Mythology, Retellings, Romance, Fantasy, Dual Point of View, Science Fiction, Psyche and Eros, Novella, Paranormal, Romantasy, Ancient Greece

Publication Date:
May 25, 2023

Pages Numbers:
352

Read Date:
July 26th, 2023

Date Finished:
July 26th, 2023

Rating:
4.5/5

Blurb:

In this utterly transporting reimagining of Greek mythology, the god of desire is cursed to fall for a spirited young mortal woman, but if she looks upon his face they will be parted forever—an epic adventure and love story for the ages, sure to satisfy fans of Madeline Miller and V.E. Schwab

Who said true love is a myth?

A prophecy claims that Psyche, princess of Mycenae, will defeat a monster feared even by the gods. Rebelling against her society’s expectations for women, Psyche spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing to meet her destiny.

When Psyche angers the love goddess Aphrodite, she sends Eros, god of desire, to deliver a cruel curse. After eons watching humanity twist his gifts, the last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the mortal world. But when he pricks himself with the arrow intended for Psyche, Eros finds himself doomed to yearn for a woman who will be torn from him the moment their eyes meet.

Thrown together by fate, headstrong Psyche and world-weary Eros will face challenges greater than they could have ever imagined. And as the Trojan War begins and divine powers try to keep them apart, the pair must determine if the curse could become something more . . . before it’s too late.

A joyous and subversive tale of gods, monsters, and the human heart and soul, Psyche and Eros dazzles the senses while exploring notions of trust, sacrifice, and what it truly means to be a hero. With unforgettably vivid characters, spellbinding prose, and delicious tension, Luna McNamara has crafted a shimmering and propulsive debut novel about a love so strong it defies the will of Olympus.

Review:

In the ancient world, the mythology of Eros and Psyche has been one of the most enduring and spun myths. Its story has been changed throughout the centuries, added on, embellished, retold, and interpreted differently by many. The original myth comes steep in Greek Mythology. A beautiful young woman named, Psyche, was admired and adored by many, but never married. Most of the males who came across her preferred to admire and adore her from afar, but never offered for her hand in marriage.

Many saw Psyche as a goddess and began worshipping her instead of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, and in doing so, angered the goddess that she made her son, Eros, take his arrows to strike Psyche into falling in love with the ugliest males. Eros went to do his mother's bidding but only ended up falling in love with her instead that he whisked her away to be his wife.

Eros and Psyche’s marriage was kept secret, and Psyche became overwhelmed by curiosity about her mysterious husband. Even her jealous sisters, seeing how well their sister was living, planted the seed in her head that he must be ugly. This would be seed enough to cause Psyche to use a light to see his face and in doing so, he would vanish from their home in order to punish her.

Psyche would plead with Aphrodite to be given the chance to see her husband again, but Aphrodite, already angered by the fact the mortal woman she had sought to punish, now stood before her pleading for help. She would be given three tasks, each one to be most difficult than the other. She would be helped by the Gods with each task and be finally reunited with her husband.

In this version of the tale, Eros is not the son of Aphrodite but rather one of the primordial gods that had been birth during the early stages of life. His arrows would cause trouble, not only with the mortal realm but also with the new Gods that would ascend to the thrones after the fall of the Titans. While he watched his gifts cause trouble, Eros would decide that he would withhold them. That is until the birth of Aphrodite, who would in turn, adopt him as her "son" and force him to do her bidding.

Psyche, on the other hand, is the daughter of a King and Queen whose bloodline goes back to one of the most heroic men in mythology, Perseus. She wanted to live up to that expectation and to the prophecy that believes she would conquer the monster. Taught by Atalanta, Psyche seeks to carve her name as her ancestor did, but when she meets Medusa, she begins to question everything about her life.

But when Psyche angers Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love sends her adopted son, Eros sends a cursed arrow to be buried into Psyche's heart, but Eros ends up pricking his finger and becomes enamored with her. Taking her with him to his home as his wife, Eros, and Psyche settle into a secret married life. To be able to spend time with her and avoid the curse of being awakened, but one night Psyche's curiosity, fed from her conversations with Zephyrus and Prometheus, gets the best of her and she brings a torch into their room to find see her husband's face. Believing the curse has been awakened, Eros flees from home leaving his wife alone.

Through the story of Psyche's journey to find and unite with Eros, McNamara explores the themes of self-discovery, transformation, and the integration of our inner selves. She argues that by embracing our own Eros and Psyche energies and finding a balance between them, we can achieve a greater sense of wholeness and fulfillment in our lives.

Final Thought:

This unique perspective on the myth of Psyche and Eros offers readers a new way to understand and work with their own desires and passions. It challenges us to examine our own relationship with intimacy, love, and meaning, and to consider how we can integrate these aspects of our lives to live more authentically and fully.

Similar Books:

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou